Fusion reactor achieves tenfold increase in plasma confinement time

[jakeXT]

The promise of fusion is immense. Its fuel is hydrogen plasma, made from the most abundant atom in the Universe, and the major byproduct is helium, an inert gas. In this era with the threat of climate change, clean alternative sources of energy are more necessary than ever. However, even after decades of research and enormous investments of money, scientists haven't succeeded in producing a working nuclear fusion plant. Nevertheless, many feel the potential payoff is worth continued investment.

For that reason, work is proceeding apace on the next generation of fusion reactors. Researchers at the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in Hefei, China, achieved a significant improvement in its confinement time and the density of the plasma it held. This step is necessary to maintain the appropriate conditions for fusion as well as to reduce the damage the hot plasma causes to the reactor walls. As described by J. Li and colleagues, the latest run at EAST achieved a plasma pulse lasting over 30 seconds, a record achievement that simultaneously demonstrated improvements in heat dispersal.

Nuclear fusion requires overcoming the electric repulsion between positively charged nuclei until the strong nuclear force exerts itself. In practice, that requires very high temperatures, which ensure that the nuclei are moving fast enough to collide rather than repel each other. While fusion is relatively easy on a small scale, researchers have yet to produce a reliable chain reaction that safely yields more energy than is required to sustain it.

Ultimately the problem is one of plasma confinement: holding the nuclei within a limited space at sufficiently high temperature. (Plasma is a gas consisting of free electrons and nuclei; at cooler temperatures, these particles recombine to make neutral atoms, another reason to keep things hot.) Hot gas expands rapidly, so energy is required to force the plasma back together.


http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/11/fusion-reactor-achieves-tenfold-increase-in-plasma-confinement-time/

[longship]

1. Not a bad article.

Not sure how practical this is, but these incremental improvements may get us there one day. It's still fucking difficult.

[jmowreader]

2. The helium is the best reason to develop this

Energy is important...but we are running out of helium.

[valerief]

3. Damn party balloons! nt

[jmowreader]

4. Party balloons are the least of our worries

Helium is an important industrial gas used in a vast number of applications...you couldn't run an MRI scanner without liquid helium to cool the magnets, or make the wafers for computer chips without a helium atmosphere to grow the crystals silicon wafers are sliced from.

[jakeXT]

5. Maybe a reference to this video

[qazplm]

6. I think it was

wait let me check...reads...apparently that post was what the kids call "a joke."

It seems like "a joke" is something not to be taken seriously but simply for amusement and laughter.

Huh. Interesting. Learn something new.